Last Saturday, my husband and I ran our most difficult race yet: Winterlaufe. My goal was to finish in about an hour since it was a five mile race, and that did NOT happen. Once the race started, my goal was to not get injured. My, how things change quickly!

The race started out on a road, and we had to go over some hilly areas. I didn’t have problems with hills, but the snow and ice made everything difficult for me. When I was in 11th grade, I suffered a really bad ankle sprain that never healed properly. I’ve always had weak ankles because I have flat feet, and basically need the flattest land possible while walking, running, or just moving in general. With snow and ice in the mix, my ankles cave in pretty badly. I haven’t had any issues with my ankles and running, unless I’m in the snow.

It was snowing during the entire race, and because my ankles were not stable on the snow and ice, they were on fire with pain. I ended up walking during some parts because I didn’t want to fall. Instead, I kept telling myself that it was more important to just finish no matter what the time was, because I have a half marathon to run in April! There was one point in the race where I considered dropping out. It was that bad.

Even the seasoned runners were having a hard time. I heard one guy, who was way ahead of me, say “I don’t think I can do this”. It was one of those races that loops so you end up running past everyone who is ahead of you or behind you. I saw a lot of people struggling and stopping. We ran over a bridge, which had a trail on either side, and that was probably the hardest area. Finally, in mile 3, I started to feel better in my feet and was able to finish the race feeling a lot stronger than the beginning.

My final time was not even close to what I wanted: 1 hour, 13 minutes. I was almost last in my age group, so I left the race feeling pretty terrible.